It is not just supermarkets taking the brunt of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) focus on consumer-facing issues.

Chairman
Rod Sims
has ramped up a clampdown against the practice by big energy retailers where sales representatives knock on the doors of residential homes with the aim of getting them to switch to their service.

Origin Energy
is the target of the ACCC’s fifth proceeding against door-knocking. Rival
AGL
copped a Federal Court fine earlier this year for alleged misleading and deceptive and misleading conduct by sales staff in late 2011.

Origin Energy is the target this time with the competition watchdog filing Federal Court proceedings alleging the nation’s biggest energy retailer and its sales representatives made false or misleading statements to consumers.

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In June, Origin said it was withdrawing from residential door-to-door sales by Sept 30. Chief executive
Grant King
has also pointed to changes in technology, which means more customers are using the internet as the forum for paying or changing their energy suppliers.

Still, the ACCC’s clampdown is important as it has punished energy retailers for some questionable conduct in a highly competitive market. There are allegations of undue harassment or coercion and suggestions that representatives told some householders they were being overcharged by the competition or failed to inform them about cooling off periods.

The elderly or non-English speaking households are particularly vulnerable.

The issue for the ACCC has not been to introduce a blanket ban on all door-knocking that would effectively reverse everything the commission stands for by reducing competition. It remains an important tool for smaller players who do not have existing customers and need to knock on doors to let people know who they are.